中国人的精神3.12
方疏桐
Now to come to the question: is Chinese a difficult language? My answer is, yes and no.Let us first take the spoken language.The Chinese spoken language, I say, is not only not difficult, but as compared with the half dozen languages that I know,—the easiest language in the world except,—Malay.Spoken Chinese is easy because it is an extremely simple language.It is a language without case, without tense, without regular and irregular verbs; in fact without grammar, or any rule whatever.But people have said to me that Chinese is difficult even because of its simplicity; even because it has no rule or grammar.That, however, cannot be true.Malay like Chinese, is also a simple language without grammar or rules; and yet Europeans who learn it, do not find it difficult.Thus in itself and for the Chinese colloquial or spoken Chinese at least is not a difficult lauguage.But for educated Europeans and especially for half educated Europeans who come to China, even colloquial or spoken Chinese is a very difficult language: and why? Because spoken or colloquial Chinese is, as I said, the language of uneducated men, of thoroughly uneducated men; in fact the language of a child.Now as a proof of this, we all know how easily European children learn colloquial or spoken Chinese, while learned philogues and sinologues insist in saying that Chinese is so difficult.Chinese, colloquial Chinese, I say again is the language of a child.My first advice therefore to my foreign friends who want to learn Chinese is “Be ye like little children, you will then not only enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but you will also be able to learn Chinese.”
京公网安备 11010802032529号